Man Punches Woman Over Flyers-Penguins Hockey Argument

Pennsylvania hockey fans' allegiances are geographically divided. Most fans in the western half of the state root for the Pittsburgh Penguins, while fans in the east cheer for the Philadelphia Flyers. The teams' heated rivalry is one of the best in the NHL, but one fan took the battle too far this weekend in State College, Pa., in the center of the Keystone State.

According to police reports, two men were arguing about the Penguins and Flyers at a bar on Saturday night when a 23-year-old woman offered her opinion on the matter, causing one of the men to punch her in the eye and flee the scene. The woman gave a description of the man to police: he is college age, 5'9" and brown eyes, which makes him one of 3.2 zillion guys fitting that description in State College and nearby Penn State University. Authorities were reviewing surveillance footage to get an image of the man, as well as more evidence as to what happened in the incident.

It's a wonder this sort of thing doesn't happen more often (the fighting-over-sports part, not the guy-hits-a-girl part). While hockey fans in Pennsylvania have a natural rivalry, sports fans everywhere are constantly encouraged to argue with each other by sports talk radio and TV. Trash talk and a good sports argument can be fun, but when it leads to violence, it's probably saying more about national culture than we'd like to admit.